Chennai to Mamallapuram: Mamallapuram Day 1

January 13, 2010

To backtrack a bit, the first thing that we noticed when we got off the plane in Chennai was the humidity: it must have been 70 degrees and humid when we got off the plane. Walking onto the tarmac was like walking through dense, sticky air (probably because that's what it was...lol). Mind you, this was at 1 in the morning or so. We had finally left the fog behind and were in a completely different climate.

In many ways you can split the trip right down the middle at the point we landed in Chennai. It was fog versus sun, structure versus freedom, and more. We met our other Professor, Tim, at the Radisson. We all checked in and then crashed.

We woke up around ten and had a delicious breakfast with things we hadn't had since the start of the trip: scrambled eggs, toast, doughnuts with coffee, bacon (mmm... :D), orange juice...it was heaven for my palette! We left and drove to Mamallapuram. We got there around 2:00 pm. I finished reading Midnight's Children on the drive.

This is what our hotel looked like:

Quite the contrast from Delhi!

There was green EVERYWHERE! And we packed away all our jackets, sweatshirts, pants, and other warm clothing, trading them for tshirts, shorts, and flip-flops. This part of the trip literally felt like a vacation.

We were going to have a huge fish dinner at the end of the week and the cooks showed us just exactly the type of seafood they were gonna cook for us:

The best seafood I've ever had.

This was a carving in the hotel lobby.

[insert amazement about detail]

The view from our hotel-that's a Hindu temple in the distance. We visited it on one of the following days.

Our hotel was called the Seashore Hotel for a reason :)

The city streets. Mamallapuram definitely had that "beach town" vibe going.

I love the colors of the buildings on the left!

One of the temples lit up at night.

A delicious restaurant that we ate at our first night there-it was a french themed restaurant, crepes and all.

View from the street.

Our first day there was very low-key. We just settled into our new climate and location and got ready for the next day.

Tomorrow: the sights and sounds of Mamallapuram! (that's like my favorite place-name to say: Mamallapuram. just rolls off the tongue lol) A scrumptious fish dinner! and travel to Pondicherry!